This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Collection

Resources in this top level collection a) must have scored Exemplary or Very Good in all five review categories, and must also rate as “Exemplary” in at least three of the five categories. The five categories included in the peer review process are

This resource received a gold-star rating from a Panel Peer Review

These materials were reviewed using face-to-face NSF-style review panel of
geoscience and geoscience education experts to review groups of resources addressing
a single theme. Panelists wrote reviews that addressed the criteria:

scientific accuracy and currency

usability and

pedagogical effectiveness

Reviewers rated the resources:

Accept

Accept with minor revisions

Accept with major revisions, or

Reject.

They also singled out those resources they considered particularly exemplary, which are given a gold star rating.

Following the panel meetings, the conveners wrote summaries of the panel discussion for each resource; these were
transmitted to the creator, along with anonymous versions of the reviews.
Relatively few resources were accepted as is. In most cases, the majority of the resources were either designated as 1) Reject or 2) Accept with major revisions.
Resources were most often rejected for their lack of completeness to be used in a classroom or they contained scientific inaccuracies.

This is a complete activity that requires a working knowledge of Excel (see teaching notes and tips).

Learning Goals

Learn about ice cores and what they can tell us about past atmospheric conditions.

Learn about past atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and CH4.

Learn about the climate and ice age cycle for past 160,000 years.

Transfer text data into Excel.

Use Excel to make and analyze graphs and to perform simple calculations.

Context for Use

This activity can be as a homework assignment or lab activity in an introductory geoscience course with climate change content. Instructors may want to use the Vostok ice core data to make graphs for interactive lecture or other graphical analysis activities.